NEWS

U.S. Senate Confirms Kaye, Mohorovic Nominations for CPSC

July 29, 2014 | In a hearing held last night, the U.S. Senate confirmed President Obama’s nominees for the vacant positions on the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). Elliot Kaye will lead the agency as CPSC chair for a term ending in 2020, while Joe Mohorovic will come on board as the CPSC’s new Republican commissioner through 2019.

Once sworn in, Mr. Kaye and Mr. Mohorovic will join Commissioners Robert Adler (who served as acting chair and will resume his duties as vice chair), Ann Marie Buerkle and Marietta Robinson, restoring the CPSC to a five-person Commission. Mr. Kaye will fill the vacancy left by Inez Tenenbaum, whose vacated her position as CPSC chair in November 2013. Mr. Mohorovic will fill the seat of former commissioner Nancy Nord, who departed the CPSC last October.

Mr. Kaye will leave his current post as executive director of the CPSC to assume the chairmanship. He joined the agency in 2010, holding several positions including chief of staff and chief counsel to Chairman Tenenbaum. While at the CPSC, Mr. Kaye focused his efforts on reducing brain injuries in youth sports, preventing injuries to children from the ingestion of coin cell batteries and combating deaths and injuries from carbon monoxide poisoning. Formerly an attorney and judicial clerk at the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, Mr. Kaye received his JD from New York University School of Law.

Mr. Mohorovic has served as senior vice president of strategic management of Intertek’s North America Consumer Goods division since 2007. He previously worked for the CPSC as a senior policy advisor to the chairman and as chief of staff and director in the office of international programs and intergovernmental affairs. Prior to joining the CPSC, Mr. Mohorovic served in the New Mexico State Legislature. He holds an MBA from the Robert O. Anderson School of Business Management at the University of New Mexico.

During a Senate hearing before the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee held earlier this summer, both Mr. Kaye and Mr. Mohorovic said that import surveillance and finding ways to reduce third party testing burdens would be among their top priorities at the Commission. The Toy Industry Association (TIA) recently urged the CPSC to prioritize surveillance and testing cost reductions in its budget for fiscal years 2015 and 2016.

The full Senate has yet to confirm Commissioner Adler for a second term; his current term expires in October 2014. CPSC rules allow for him to remain on the Commission for a holdover year until he is reconfirmed or his replacement is confirmed.

TIA will continue to monitor this topic and keep members apprised about the new Commission.